One woman dead in cemetery murder-suicide attempt

P-I STAFF

Updated 10:00 pm, Tuesday, July 24, 2007

(Editor's note: This story has been updated since it was first published. An incorrect date was given for the incident.)

An elderly woman was shot to death and a second woman suffered life-threatening gunshot injuries Tuesday evening after what police suspect was as an attempted murder-suicide in a Seattle cemetery.

Police were called to the Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home and Cemetery about 5:50 p.m. and found two women inside a gray sedan with gunshot wounds in the head, spokeswoman Renee Witt said.

The women -- one 60 and the other about 80 -- were rushed from the 11100 block of Aurora Avenue North to Harborview Medical Center, where the older woman died, police said. The younger woman had life-threatening injuries, Witt said.

Witt said it appears that the 60-year-old -- thought to be the daughter of the dead woman -- pulled the trigger of a handgun that was found on her lap. The sedan was packed with belongings and was parked inside the cemetery.

Witt said a note was found in the car, but she wouldn't elaborate on what it said.

Homicide detectives were on the scene, and police cordoned off a small area of the cemetery while they took photographs and tried to determine what had happened.

"Our homicide detectives will investigate to make sure there was no foul play, and substantiate the fact it was a murder-suicide," Witt said. "Detectives took the note as evidence."